ethicalweddings.com

I’ve had a long absence from this blog… while I enjoyed my wedding and my month long honeymoon!

Everything was a huge success and Phil and I enjoyed every minute of our day. So here’s a little list of the best and the worst of our green successes and failures, for anyone who is planning to try some of our experiments for themselves…

These worked…

Homegrown table flowers - daffs, crocuses and primroses - made great table and floor decorations which are living on in gardens and conservatories

Silk flower bouquets from ebay looked great, were cheap and were much easier to organise than cutting home-grown flowers to hold! I can now also give my bouquet to an Oxfam bridal shop as it is pristine and another bride could easily use it.

Online invites and reminders got all our guests to the wedding on time and worked beautifully

My biosustainable silk dress was fab and everyone said it looked stunning (I guess people say that to brides whatever they look like, but I chose to believe them!!)

My Oxfam shoes held up even for my very spinny wedding dance

The Fairtrade, organic home made cakes got gobbled up really quickly

The recycled gold rings are beautiful and comfortable and we are really pleased with them

Borrowing things was very helpful indeed – cake stand, potted plants and studio lights (for the photography which was all done by a friend) were borrowed and returned without mishap, and saved us lots of cash and carbon.

Asking for honeymoon contributions instead of presents worked really well and most people were intrigued by the whole thing. Some disregarded it though (see below!)

My free range hen party was a complete success and some of the hens were even wearing their own jewellery creations at the wedding. Hooray!

… and these didn’t work

Hiring minibuses for shared transport failed because we didn’t book the buses early enough. By the time we had our lists of routes and pick-ups prepared, all the minibus companies in the area were booked out for a Harry Potter filiming session that was going on nearby. In the end we emailed all the guests who had ticked ‘yes’ to shared transport, and tried to match them with other guests living near them who could car share. If you want buses, organise them a few weeks beforehand!!

Cutting homegrown flowers for bouquets would perhaps be ok in the summer, but as we had fairly fragile bulb flowers and I have no flower arranging skills whatsoever, I am glad I chickened out of cutting our own flowers and bought silk ones.

Asking guests not to bring cards or presents half worked… everyone signed the message plates we used instead of a guest book, but many guest brought cards as well, and some brought presents too. Actually it was lovely reading their card messages and we enjoying looking through them! So I guess the conclusion we drew from this one is that it’s a great idea to ask people not to bring stuff… but be prepared for them not to listen, and just accept and enjoy if they give you stuff!

Lots of people told us how much they enjoyed it and how impressed they were with the green aspects. One person had expected it to be a bit odd, but even she was pleasantly surprised and told me so.

 So good luck to all the brides out there who are trying to make some ethical choices! It is well worth it and will make you even more pleased with your day if you can make one or two things more green. And if you want to borrow anything do ask me!! If I can lend it I will!!